Hi everyone,
Here is a reminder of the upcoming Musos night at the Glasshouse Mountains Sports Club next Thursday August 9 from 7pm to 10pm.
We have a special guest this week who is down from Townsville to record an album at the Soundspace with me. Her name is Anu Grace and she will be accompanied by Laurie Bycroft on bass and other players. Anu is a very dynamic artist – her website gives some idea of her work http://www.anugrace.com
The Musos Club is excited to have new artists coming through town and sharing some of their work with us, and I’ll ask Anu to play a long set as it is a special night for us. Other “club” members might know of artists who would like to visit us and perhaps offer some merchandise for sale as well as play. If so please put them in touch with me – email is best, then we can promote them beforehand.
I have had enquiries from newcomers who’ve asked how we work and they suggested we update our invitation every now and then. What is exciting for me is that the club will change as time goes on and the format will need to be massaged to accomodate that. At the moment “club nights” are being exceptionally well attended, so we’ll continue to use a blackboard (or in our case whiteboard) to determine who plays when. It is a wonderfully democratic system, guaranteeing anyone who wants to play a spot (if they get in early enough), and it is also a useful program so you can see who is on and when. To make it easy for you people can email me to book a spot before the night. Except for special guests we ask each act to keep their set to 15 minutes, so that usually only allows 10 or 11 minutes playing time, therefore presenting 3 songs/pieces is about right. People can either come along ready to play – accompanying themselves or using backing tracks (we provide an mp3 player that accepts audio CDs), or they can bring chord and lyric charts with them (preferably 2 or 3 copies) and they are sure to find a few willing backers (we have music stands). We provide a good PA with foldback, and DI for your guitar or bass etc. At the end of the night, if there is more time, keen acts are welcome to get up for a few more songs, or people might like to jam.
Stylistically our club has no limits although we are not set up for a loud band, so we suggest if that is your preference then you bring along a pared down or “unplugged” version of your work. Personally I’d love to see more jazz, world and classical music, but that is just me – I’m open to anything!
On that subject I like the idea of people sitting around with acoustic instruments every now and then and singing songs unamplified – it encourages those of us who are reticent to get up on stage to join in, and that is what this wonderful thing music making is all about – sharing something we love with others. It could be that our present format doesn’t encourage that sort of music making so it might be that we might start up the occasional night that is more acoustic. I can see there might be interest in it. In those situations I suggest individuals direct the acoustic sessions for periods, eg Jack leads for 20 minutes and we sing his songs, and then Mary leads for 20 minutes and we have a chance to sing her songs. That lends a lot of variety to the evening. Please do give me your response to these sorts of ideas.
All the best and hope to see many of you Thursday,
Michael
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The Glasshouse Mountains Musicians Club 9 Aug 12
We were pleased to have a special guest at the Musos Club this week in Anu Grace accompanied by Laurie Bycroft on bass. Anu, who also plays ukulele and flute, sang her own songs in a cheeky, delightful way and was enjoyed by everyone who attended. There were requests for her album, but we’ll have to wait for a few more months. Keep your eye on her website http://www.anugrace.com or ask us. She’ll be back down this way later in the year to put the finishing the touches on her album, so we’ll hope to have her back at the Musos then.
Other performers at this Club session included the superb singer guitarist Tommy Leonard, who continues to astound with his choice of beautiful repertoire, most of which is unknown to us – convincing proof that the work that is made available via the radio waves is really only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to fine songs and, for that matter, talented singer guitarists! On that subject Greg Bryant once again supplied us with a set showing off both his song writing talents and engaging voice. Greg assured me he had a cold and was a bit down – if only most of us sounded a quarter as good when in top shape!
Doug Solow began the proceedings this session, wanting to feature his instrument of choice – the bass, in an uncharacteristic setting. He sung us a number of popular songs from the 50s and 60s accompanied solely by the bass – a novel approach, and welcome at this Club where artists are encouraged to try things out! Later in the evening Clive Bilby, accompanied by backing tracks, gave us short set of solo guitar songs of the Shadows. Someone commented they hadn’t heard one of the songs before and Clive noted that the Shadows had released 600 odd songs! Now that is an impressive canon!
Other performers this week include Aaron Tregea, Paul Fagan and yours truly making up the numbers. We welcome new performers of course and are always looking at ways of encouraging more people to get up and play or sing a song.
Michael
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